Meet Ryan Carter, who works in Training and Certification as a Senior Technical Instructor in our London office.
His role is to train customers specializing in development courses from Fundamentals to Advanced Development. He also works on curriculum development and building new content and classes for students. He is a Mule Developer, author, and trainer with over 10 years working with Mule in addition to being Mule champion and community contributor.
What is the most interesting problem you’re working on solving right now?
I am currently working with the team on developing our new Anypoint Platform Development: Advanced course. We are revamping our current advanced course for Mule 3 with a whole new course for Mule 4. This course will cover advanced development techniques, patterns, and tools to develop Mule applications. If you have taken Anypoint Platform Development: Fundamentals, then this course will take you to the next level.
How did you get to becoming a Senior Technical Instructor?
I have been working with Mule for 10+ years. My first Mule experience was with Mule 2 and now we’re on Mule 4! Over the last 10 years, I have been a MuleSoft developer and architect working in multiple industries including insurance, healthcare and life sciences, retail, and more. I have always used MuleSoft wherever I have been as it’s solved so many of my integration challenges and I wanted to spread the word and help out the community.
In 2012, I wrote the O’Reilly book “Getting Started with Mule Cloud Connect – Accelerating Integration with SaaS, Social Media, and Open APIs” – an introduction to connecting Mule with APIs – and I help out a lot on StackOverflow as a moderator helping answer any Mule-related questions. I have a passion for helping others be successful with MuleSoft, and in my recent roles, I have taken on the role of training Mule developers from advanced Mule training to developers completely new to Mule. I have also been a big advocate of the MuleSoft certifications — currently holding all MuleSoft certifications ever created. They push me to test my knowledge as they are challenging exams and they help me to learn new concepts/features that the platform has introduced with each new version. So I couldn’t think of a better fit than the Training and Certification team here at MuleSoft.
Take us through a typical day in the life.
There is no typical day — I could either be writing code and training materials for new courses or I could be training our customers from Fundamentals to Advanced Development. I also try and find time to help out in the community wherever possible, helping out on StackOverflow and the MuleSoft Forums, writing blogs, and attending/speaking at Meetups.
What 3 things are always on your desk and why?
When I train online and work from home, my home desk always has my Max the Mule squishy. I have my Lego Architecture series for San Francisco because firstly, I love Lego, and second, it actually has the Salesforce Tower as one of the buildings (with a MuleSoft sticker at the top of the tower). You know you’ve made it when your company is in Lego form. And lastly, coffee; I always have coffee — no explanation needed.
What is your favorite activity outside of the office?
My favorite activity at home is going on family dog walks with my wife, daughter and my three dogs: Gizzi the Shih Tzu, Kate the Labrador, and Bronson the King Charles Cavalier (named after ‘Charles’ Bronson).
What is the latest technology you’ve learned to use?
The latest technology I have learned proves that integration is needed everywhere! I am creating a Homebridge server on a Raspberry Pi Zero to integrate some non-Apple home accessories. I’m writing my own Node JS module for integrating a Dyson Link into Apple Home Kit and using Mule to host a GraphQL API for getting all my home info using the Mule GraphQL module.
What is your favorite thing about working on the Training and Certification team at MuleSoft?
MuleSoft moves fast. Back when I started working with Mule, we had a great Runtime, we now have Anypoint Platform and Mule 4 with new features and platform components released all the time. From API management and visualizing application networks to creating REST and GraphQL APIs — you simply cannot be bored. You get to work with the latest technologies and trends all the time. As part of the training team, we get to work with all our products and features so that we can help our customers and the community be successful with them as well. You can visit MuleSoft’s training and certification page to see the new courses and certifications my team and I have developed to support our users.
